Stressful experiences for a Civil Engineering College Student

Manhattan Seal

Day 1 of Class in the fall of 1993

The very first day of class was definitely the hardest one I've experienced thus far in college overall. For some reason I think that learning of where exactly your classroom is located, and the registration for classes before you actually get there was the hardest for me. No matter which way, that I decided to plan it all.

The first day still turned out to be difficult for me, because everyone is trying to beat the lines that will form at the registrars office, where you had to go to register for classes. This was all done about a day prior to getting your class schedule & the other part that was tough was paying for all the books you needed after getting the class syllabus from the Professor's, & last but not least carrying all the books back to the dorm room.

Hopefully you have all your financial responsibilities in terms of obligations towards school tuition payments, taken care of ahead of time. One time I didn't have it all squared away, & the start of my classes were held up for a day, which was the worst experience by far. Must have been during my junior year at Manhattan College, when I began to get the hang of it all.

Dealing with the Bursars office could be stressful if you haven't given your documents you submitted the proper attention, because you will get the run around many times if your information is somewhat inaccurate. Be clear as to which payment methods you're going to utilize whether it be financial aid, grants, loans, or a combination of the three & or scholarships.

By Naomi King | Source

Proper Planning For College

Planning it all ahead of time will make for a much more pleasant experience & less stressful indeed. The Registrars office works hand and hand with the Bursars office, One is for class registrations, & the other is for college financials. They must be in agreement with one another in order for any classes to get registered to students, at the time prior to the very first day of class.

I was a Civil Engineering major, so that meant I was headed for a great deal of high level informative lectures by some of the worlds best engineering professors that money could buy. College level mathematics, chemistry, computers, physics, philosophy, religion, and many more were all prerequisites for a civil engineering student at Manhattan College.

I loved the challenge that college had presented to me, especially knowing that I wanted to become an inventor someday, & be able to design something that humanity could grow to have a need for using. I chose civil engineering because I was always fascinated by the look and design of structures, whether it was a building, a bridge, a roadway or any other large stricture that supported a great deal of live weight (loads).

The Engineering Building is #19 on the Map

My first class I had was Calculus-I

Calculus-I was actually the easiest class for me, and I'm sure many of you reading this hub would think I was crazy for saying that. I've always been an amazing mathematician since I were young in grade school, so at every interval of learning the subject I excelled at it far above the average math student.

I actually enjoyed math so much that I was doing equations all the time in my head where ever I went, the only time I didn't practice math problems was when I had to learn a differing subject, and even then the equations would somewhat float around in my head.

I use to have to force myself not to think about it all, but I loved me some math especially calculus. Since I were an engineering student at the time, this love of math came in handy for me. Engineering involves some pretty complex usages of mathematical formulas and each student is expected to have a strong hold on the basic principles that support the presence of such subject matter.

In order to fully embrace the civil engineering concepts which would come the very next year, in our sophomore year, each student had to prove themselves worthy of the full comprehension & understanding of each building block that lead to the civil engineering curriculum's developmental stages.

Classes such as structural analysis, statics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, steel design, material science, surveying, concrete design, soil mechanics, and many more are all examples of the intense field of the civil engineering school. Intimidating to some students, but for me I was trilled to take on the academic challenge that would prove to me to be all that it was cracked up to be.

My favorite per-requisite course of all time was thermodynamics which I achieved a score of an A in or 4.0. The immense pressure on students to learn these subjects are definitively intense, I tried my best to handle it all one day at a time, but it truly began as a rocky road sort to speak, because I didn't take it seriously during the first semester of my freshman year.

10 helpful College tips on stress relief

Get the syllabus which is the course outline which most professors hand out on the first week of class.

Hang out with friends less & focus much more on balancing your studies.

Studying helps you make college much easier because the work load can be heavy.

Get into study groups, start one or ask around from friends.

Don't skip homework assignments.

Don't miss classes or notes being rendered to the students.

Take study breaks.

Learn to be more out going when it comes to learning and speaking to others.

Socialize with others to make good relations with your peers, and to help you learn from the more senior students who know what your going through.

If thing get out of hand seek counseling and stay away from under aged drinking, drugs or anything excessive in college.

Manhattan College Jaspers B-Ball PlayerEnjoying college is something many students may find difficult at times with all the studies they must do, if you find cool activities to get involved in it could make for an enjoyable experience.

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I wish you well in your studies. Engineering School was one of the toughest and most rewarding things I ever did.

The workload was tremendous. My parents never understood why I was never available to help them out anymore. I was busy spending 80 to 100 hours a week doing homework and projects. I remember writing reports that were 100s of pages long. All in all, college was a great experience. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the classes.

Oh, and I am glad that you say you love math. Just wait until you experience differential equations and numerical methods. It will blow your mind.

CloudExplorer 5 years ago from New York City Author

I have @ CWanamaker, I got done with college years ago, I just got on Hub so I'm sharing my stories today, oh Differential equations was also easy for me, I had a great time in that class. I scored 4.0 on that one too. I think people who can analyze things on differing levels can actually see through all the symbolism schools use to hide the truth to certain knowledge's such as math.

One thing though I guess I left out when I had first wrote this hub was, it occurred back in 1993, and so I recently updated this hub so to reflect such a fact, so that people will no longer get confused as to when such an experience in college occurred to me.